Blue Coat Buys Crossbeam Systems

"Blue Coat owner Thoma Bravo bought Crossbeam in November, and that means a faster close for Blue Coat than it might have been otherwise, Blue Coat executives said," writes CRN's Chad Berndtson. "'The recent acquisition of Crossbeam by Thoma Bravo provided the due diligence and thorough modeling that Blue Coat needed to accelerate this deal,' David Murphy, Blue Coat's COO and president, said in an email to CRN."

"Combining cloud-based web security with scalable network security, Blue Coat said that the acquisition will lay the foundations for a broader strategy to transform the way businesses secure and optimise their networks," SC Magazine reports. "The deal is expected to close on 31st December 2012, and will see Blue Coat ... combine the Crossbeam X-Series portfolio with its Unified Security solution."

"Our service provider and enterprise customers are excited we are bringing together two complementary technologies," Blue Coat CEO Greg Clark said in a statement. “With Crossbeam, Blue Coat gains a best-in-class support infrastructure and a high performing platform that scales to meet the needs of even the most complex enterprise IT environments.”